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A Dance With the Devil

A True Story of Marriage to a Psychopath

Barbara Bentley - Author

Paperback | $16.00 | add to cart | view cart
ISBN 9780425221181 | 384 pages | 04 Nov 2008 | Berkley | 8.26 x 5.23in | 18 - AND UP
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Her marriage to retired Navy admiral John Perry seemed almost too good to be true. Because it was…

At the start of her relationship with the intelligent and worldly John Perry, Barbara Bentley couldn’t believe her luck—so when things didn’t add up, she struggled to ignore her doubts. She kept trying to put the pieces together—unaware that some of them were simply missing. Even as he drained her credit, dodged her questions, manipulated her and misled her, she stayed with him, suppressing her growing suspicions. Ultimately he would try to kill her, proving himself not a protector and provider, but a predator.

This is Barbara’s courageous, compelling story, in her own words—of the slow, choking darkness that fell after the honeymoon was over, what it took to finally drive her to escape and start her life anew, and her tireless efforts to protect other women and help them learn from her example.

“Harrowing account of Bentley's near-destruction by a skillful con man during their 14- year marriage. The first-time memoirist narrates this improbable nightmare in an easy-to-read conversational style that makes it all the more unsettling…An engrossing modern- day fable, particularly timely in the age of anonymous Internet dating.”
Kirkus Reviews

“This book is truly a page-turner— a shocking account of deception and betrayal.”
—Patricia Evans, author of The Verbally Abusive Relationship

“Powerful.”
—Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More


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